The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment by C.S. Lewis Doodle
Mercy, detached from justice, grows unmerciful. An illustration explaining a theory of
Crime and Punishment that
C.S Lewis called 'a man-eating weed'.
Notes below in video description.
(15:53) "
The new Nero will approach us with the silky manner of a doctor." Nero (37-68
A.D.) was the
Emperor of the pagan
Roman Empire and the greatest persecutor of the early
Church. He fed Christians to lions in the
Colosseum. He also dipped them in oil and set them on fire in his palace garden at night as a source of light.
(16:00) “All will be as compulsory as the tunica molesta of
Tyburn or Smithfield”. A 'tunica molesta' was a shirt/tunic impregnated with flammable substances such as coal tar, used to execute people by burning in ancient
Rome. Tyburn and Smithfield were for centuries the main sites for the public execution of heretics and dissidents in
London.
(19:06)
Psalm 141:5:
“Let the righteous one smite me;
It shall be a kindness:
And let him reprove me;
It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head…”
The implication
Lewis draws from this verse is that just as there is sternness that saves, there is also a niceness that destroys. A good person who rebukes your wrongs, will not do you serious damage – his rebukes or ‘strikes’ will actually heal you in the end - if you listen. See
Revelation 3.9. An enemy, however, will drown you with niceness, flattery and oily selection initially (
Prov. 7.15,21,27), but will give you, in the end, total destruction (i.e. an enemy's pretend kindnesses and treatments [healing balms] will break your head).
(19:10) A quote from
Faithful, a character in
Pilgrims Progress (section IV) by
John Bunyan:
"
Christian: Did you meet with no other assault as you came?
Faithful: When I came to the foot of the
Hill called Difficulty, I met with a very aged Man, who asked me, What I was, and whither bound? I told him, That I was a
Pilgrim, going to the
Celestial City. Then said the old man,
Thou lookest like an honest fellow; wilt thou be content to dwell with me for the wages that I shall give thee? Then I asked him his name, and where he dwelt? He said his name was
Adam the
First, and I dwell in the
Town of
Deceit. I asked him then, What was his work? and what the wages that he would give? He told me, That his work was many delights; and his wages, that I should be his
Heir at last. I further asked him,
What House he kept, and what other
Servants he had? So he told me, That his
House was maintained with all the dainties in the world; and that his Servants were those of his own begetting. Then I asked how many
Children he had? He said that he had but three
Daughters: The
Lust of the
Flesh, The Lust of the
Eyes, and
The Pride of
Life, and that I should marry them all if I would. Then I asked him how long time he would have me live with him? And he told me, As long as he lived himself.
Christian: Well, and what conclusion came the old man and you to at last?
Faithful: Why, at first, I felt myself somewhat inclinable to go with the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, Put off the old man with his deeds.
Christian. And how then?
Faithful: Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his House, he would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I would not come near the door of his House. Then he reviled me, and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should make my way bitter to my
Soul. So I turned to go away from him; but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of my flesh and
give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he had pulled part of me after himself. This made me cry, O wretched Man! So I went on my way up the Hill."